[Al Arabiya] A series of apparently coordinated car bombs targeting police across Iraq on Wednesday killed 46 people, including women and children, one day after the U.S. military confirmed a major troop reduction.The trail of bloodshed started in the capital Baghdad before stretching to the north and south of the country, hitting a total of seven cities and towns in quick succession in tactics that bore the hallmark of al-Qaeda.
In the worst attack, a car bomb at a passport office in Kut, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, killed 26 people, including 15 police, and wounded 90 people, most of them police, Lieutenant Ali Hussein told AFP.
In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle at a police station in the northeastern suburb of Qahira, killing 15 people and wounding dozens of others, security and medical officials said.
The attack in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood took place at around 8 am (0500 GMT), according to an interior ministry official who gave the toll. "The victims include policemen and civilians," he said.
A doctor at Medical City Hospital said they had received the bodies of two women, two children and two police officers, and that 44 other people were receiving treatment.
A series of car bomb attacks in five other towns and cities raised the nationwide toll to 46, and almost 250 wounded.